Times reporters blog about high school sports across the Southland

Football: Croson is pleased with Chaminade progress

September 21, 2010 | 9:27
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Ed Croson, the coach who won four City Section championships at Lake Balboa Birmingham, has West Hills Chaminade (2-0) ranked No. 2 behind Gardena Serra in the Western Division rankings in his second season as coach.

The Eagles might be a little overrated considering they have only eight seniors who have played football compared to 35 seniors Croson had at Birmingham in 2007 when the team went 13-1.

"We go up 22-6 on Venice and they don't know how to handle it," Croson said. "We're not where we're going to be, but from where we are, they're surprising me."

One of Chaminade's standouts is tight end-defensive end Jess Reed, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound senior with long hair who could be the twin of former Chaminade standout Logan Paulsen (UCLA, Washington Redskins). "He's so much like Paulsen it's not even funny," Croson said.

But trying to get his team to compete against Serra (3-0) in league and playoff action will be Croson's biggest challenge.

"Our goal is to be able to play with Serra, but we're not discounting St. Francis, Cathedral, Harvard-Westlake or anyone else," he said. "If we have constant improvement and can stay reasonably healthy, we're going to be competitive with whomever is out there."

Croson also has to decide on a quarterback. He has used two in victories over Burbank and Venice.